Report – Audi moving A1 production from Belgium to Spain

The second largest luxury automaker in the world, Audi AG, is mulling a production system change and part of the reshuffle will include the move of its most affordable model, the A1, from the current facility in Belgium to Seat’s Spanish plant.

The news comes courtesy of recent media reports, with the rumors adding that VW AG’s assembly facility in Brussels, which currently handles production duties for the Audi A1 would not be closed, but instead receive building duties for another model, with the reports claiming to have knowledge of the matters thanks to official union sources. Some of the reports spinning in the rumor mill put an electric vehicle as the next production model in the Belgian plant. VW wants to lower to costs of production by gathering all the models that use a single architecture or platform in the same factory, which entitles the A1 shift to Seat’s plant in Martorell, close to Barcelona. The current generation A1 is due for a next generation sometimes in 2018 or 2019.

According to a spokesperson for the Brussels assembly facility, the parent company of Audi has opted to spend 500 million euros at the location for the 2015-2019 period, with the 2,500-person workforce being assured the plant would have “a future.” The production quota for the A1 model is forecasted to reach 116,000 units during the year after back in 2014 it totaled 115,000 autos. In Barcelona, the Seat facility handles production output for the Audi Q3, Seat Ibiza, Leon and Altea.